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"The idea I want to push next is that the United States should make Siberia a Protectorate. Pay the Russians off – a hundred, two hundred billion dollars – and simply run Siberia in an ecologically responsible way."
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Computers are young; the first working computer systems were created only a half-century ago. When information management systems are implemented in real work environments, like hospitals, the first problem is - what do we enter into the system? Think of all of the information that is passed around in notes, written by hand in patient charts, x-ray films and so forth. Now, imagine what would it be like to have the many different tidbits of data (in every conceivable format, as technologies improved and varied) entered over the course of tens of millenia to sort through!
At this point in the novel, Taraza needs to check the records of the ancestry of particular individuals; the Bene Gesserit kept records of key bloodlines going back 300 generations and more.
Information management systems are as old as human bureaucracies; the ancient Egyptians had elaborate methods of ensuring that essential information (mostly related to taxes and land use) were kept from year to year. The "operating system" for information management was a whole social class; the scribes who could create and read the records.
I also enjoyed this little tidbit from the Bene Gesserit archives:
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Science Fiction
Timeline
Brin's 1990 Novel Earth Still Full Of Predictions
'... making the point that their likenesses, every move they made, were being transmitted.'
Gaia - Why Stop With Just The Earth?
'But the stars are only atoms in larger space, and in that larger space the star-atoms could combine to form living matter, thinking matter, couldn't they?'
Microsoft VASA-1 Creates Personal Video From A Photo
'...to build up a video picture would require, say, ten million decisions every second. Mike, you're so fast I can't even think about it. But you aren't that fast.'
Splendid View Of Eclipse From Orbit Visualized And Repurposed By Arthur C. Clarke
'The area affected was five hundred kilometres across, and perfectly circular.'
Goldene - A Two-Dimensional Sheet Of Gold One Atom Thick
'Hasan always pitched a Gauzy - a one-molecule-layer tent, opaque, feather-light, and very tough.'
SpaceX Wants A Moonbase Alpha
'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
Vast Apartment Living Will Get Even More Vast
'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
NASA Wants Self-Driving Or Remote-Controlled Vehicles For Lunar Astronauts
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'
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